The Simplest Solution
by sknkodiak
Summary: JD has a problem. Chris has a way to solve JD's problem and his own at the same time. Mention of M/M relationship.


_A/N: Also archived at AO3. Posted here as well because I'm trying to gradually get all my fiction from various fandoms in one place._

 _Originally betad by Charlotte and Wendy. Came about because of a challenge on another list. The original story was absolutely terrible, but I kept it on my hard drive and then a couple of years later dusted the idea off and re-wrote it. To be honest, it's one of my favorite stories that I've ever written._

 **The Simplest Solution**

There was a knock on Chris' office door, then it opened and JD stuck his head around. "Hey, Chris," he faltered. For a second he looked like he was going to change his mind and retreat, but then he straightened his shoulders and slid through all the way into the office. "Do you have a minute?" He looked around, a confused look on his face. "Do you smell pine in—oh, the candle." He still looked confused. "I never noticed a candle in here before. I thought it was against fire regs or something." He took a step closer to the table. "You know, I think Buck has a candle in his room that looks just like—"

Chris needed to stop this train of thought. "Air was getting stale in here. And I can't open these damn sealed windows." He quickly changed the subject. "What's up, JD? I thought you were already gone for the evening." It was a snowy Friday and with Buck and Vin both out of town, he knew the others would flee as early as possible.

JD perched on the edge of one of the chairs in front of the desk. "I stayed around until everyone was gone. I wanted to talk to you alone."

Chris couldn't imagine what JD wanted to confide in him so secretly. Maybe JD was finally going to quit and go to work for one of those big companies that were always making him tempting offers? That would be bad, on so many levels.

Silence stretched between them for several minutes and he finally couldn't stand it anymore. He prompted JD, saying, "You wanted to talk?"

"OK, well, you know Buck, right?"

Larabee didn't react either way and really didn't need to as JD kept talking. "Remember when I moved here and first joined the team and I was looking for an apartment? And they all seemed so expensive and then I told you and Buck about how I owed all that money in Boston."

This time Chris nodded. JD's mother had suffered and finally died after a long illness. There had been no insurance and JD, wanting the best medical treatment for her, had amassed a mountain of credit card debt. In his year as a Boston policeman, sharing an apartment with three other people, he'd barely managed to make the interest payments. In a new city, with a new job, knowing nobody, the kid had been near a panic about finding affordable housing until Buck had solved the problem in his typical big-hearted, no worry about the consequences way.

"Buck told me to write out what I owed down on a sticky-note," JD recited, as if Chris hadn't been there, as if he didn't remember the note was green and the pen used was black, one of those really cheap ball points that stopped writing long before they ran out of ink. "—And then he looked at it, and then he wrote an amount down and he handed it back to me and he said—"

Chris closed his eyes, hearing Buck's voice in his mind, running over JD's in front of him.

"Look, Kid, for this amount," Buck had pointed to the paper in a way that stopped Chris from seeing it, "for this amount you'd be helping me out a lot. Big chunk of my mortgage, some of the utilities. Groceries. I've got an extra room," Chris remembered how Buck's eyes had briefly met his in apology. They'd always called that Adam's room, but he'd never had the chance to spend a night in it. Chris had though, lots of nights, when he was too drunk to drive home and too pissed ugly and mean for Buck to share a bed with him.

Chris opened his eyes and realized JD had stopped talking and was just staring at him. "JD, I remember that. So what's going on now?"

"I paid off the last of the cards two months ago, right about the time Casey and I started talking about—" JD stopped, his entire face flushing. He swallowed hard and forced out, "Moving in together. Right away I offered to increase what I was paying Buck, but he just laughed it off. And I guess I was dumb, I mean, I should have realized—"

Chris took pity on the stammering younger agent. "So let me guess: you've figured out that 'big chunk' of the mortgage Buck said you were paying wasn't actually that big after all?"

"You knew?"

"Not really. I never actually saw those numbers you two wrote down. But I know _Buck_. Look JD, there's no use being angry with Buck. He was just trying to help and saying something now would just –"

JD interrupted. "No. I mean I'm not mad. Maybe Buck wasn't my big brother back then, but he sure is now. I know why he did it. But the deal is, that is what makes this so hard now. See, Casey is going to do her internships around Denver and well she, she and I…we want to get a place together. But what do I do about Buck?"

Chris looked back at the pine candle and took a deep breath of the scent. He was really confused now. "What about Buck?"

JD stared at Chris with the true annoyance of the very young. "Well I can't leave him all alone! He'll be lonely! I mean, I promised I wouldn't tell anyone but I'm worried about him, I don't even think he's dating his ladies much even now. Seems like every weekend he goes out to your place to help hay or put up fencing or something. I mean I know your place is like his second home, but come on! You think maybe he needs to go see a shrink?"

Chris bit his lip, hard, swallowing down laughter. Neither he nor Buck had ever given much thought to how their teammates accounted for Buck's time at the ranch, not even when that time increased.

They probably should have. After all, they were surrounded by detectives and some of them might be closer to the real truth than JD apparently was.

"JD," he finally choked out, hoping the younger man didn't notice his voice, "let's forget Buck for a second. What kind of place are you and Casey looking for? Something like the set-up you and Buck have now?"

"Oh, God, that would be so perfect! But no way. I mean, I finally figured out what Buck pays for a mortgage, but he was one of the first buy-ins and I guess he got all sorts of deals; either that or Buck must've put down a huge down payment. We looked at a unit that is just a little smaller. But I haven't saved anything and Casey has student loans and her car payment and my bike…we can barely make any down payment. If we could even qualify for a loan. Plus we really don't want to buy but the places to rent are too expensive or too small or too close together or too noisy or too far—"

Chris held up a hand to stop him. He had a wonderful idea. "What if I told you there was a way you and Casey could have the place of your dreams at decent rent and solve of the problem of Buck's loneliness at the same time?"

"That would be great! But—" his face fell. "I can't ask Buck to let Casey move in too, even if he'd let me pay more rent. And I don't think Casey would go for the idea, either, I mean, my room is not that big and—"

Chris cut him off again, waving him out of the office. "Don't worry about it. You just go get Casey and take her out to dinner. Monday we'll see how things have worked out. One thing, though, if this idea works out, you might have to loan out your guest room sometimes to your landlord."

When the door shut behind a puzzled JD, Chris pulled out his cell phone and hit speed dial. When Buck's voice came through the earpiece, Chris felt his lips spread out in a wide smile at just hearing his lover. "You on your way home?"

"Just getting ready to board the plane. You meeting me at the airport?"

"Can't stop me," Chris swore. He chuckled. "Got a surprise for you."

"What?" Buck's voice perked up immediately.

"Let's just say I know how to break the news to JD and the rest of the guys that you're moving out to the ranch with me. And you won't have to worry about JD being alone. Seems that kid had plans of his own all along."

He heard Buck stifle a yawn. "My hero. You going to tell me tonight?"

Chris heard the exhaustion in his lover's tone. "Something tells me you'll be asleep before we clear the airport gate. And I have plans for you and me tomorrow. I'll tell you tomorrow night." He stopped, and then he decided to say it. "I love you."

Minutes later, still smiling, he stared over at the pine scented candle.

Years ago, on the eve of them going to separate posts in the Navy, Chris and Buck had spent one weekend at a cheap lodge at California's Lake Arrowhead resort known as the Pine Tree Lodge. The place lived up to its name, with pine tree décor and pine furnishings, as well as pines thickly clustered between the eight small cabins, which were of course, built out of pine. As if that weren't enough, the complimentary soaps, shampoo, and body lotions, were pine scented. By the end of that sex- soaked weekend, they'd both thought they'd never want to smell pine again. Funny thing, though, as it turned out, neither Buck nor Chris could smell pine without getting a hard-on for the other.

Apparently, in the over three years of Team Seven being together, no one had noticed the excess of pine toiletries, candles, notepaper and doo-dads, that Chris and Buck exchanged on Christmas, birthdays, and just whenever one wanted to rile the other up. Buck had even found them pine-flavored condoms.

Now, Chris stood, adjusting his half hard dick in his slacks as he looked forward to seeing his lover. Pretty soon, hell maybe even this weekend, they could start moving Buck fully out to the ranch. It had been a long time coming, and sometimes it had seemed like they'd never be together, but true love…and a lot of pine products, had finally won out.

He leaned over and blew out the candle. Sometimes the simplest solutions really were the best.


End file.
